Comments on: John McCain and Ben Stein’s Money

By: MJDaniels53

MJDaniels53 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:35:40 +0000

Chris:
What is the point that you're trying to make?

Mark Daniels

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:46:41 +0000

When Reagan cut taxes the upper brackets were absurdly high. It thus made perfect sense. Unfortunately, it seems to me the lesson presumed by many is a too simple one: tax cuts work. They appear to ignore the qualifier inherent in the Laffer curve itself: they work when rates are too high.

QFTMFT.

And remember, McCain used to agree.

By: Ricorun

Ricorun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:35:04 +0000

For the record, Ben Stein has always been more of a deficit hawk rather than a supply sider. So this op-ed is nothing new. He's been advocating raising taxes on the wealthy for quite some time. IMO, it's people like Bruce Bartlett -- i.e., people who used to be supply siders, or perhaps more correctly, people who are a saner breed of supply sider -- who have more gravitas when criticizing McCain's approach.

But I do think Stein made an important observation in his article: it took more than five years for tax revenues to just get back to where they were prior to Bush's cuts, even though the economy grew -- and while expenditures continued to grow dramatically. The only thing worse than "tax and spend" is "borrow and spend". And I fear, as do people like Bartlett, Stein, and this guy, that McCain intends to perpetuate the latter, even if it's a totally crazy idea.

When Reagan cut taxes the upper brackets were absurdly high. It thus made perfect sense. Unfortunately, it seems to me the lesson presumed by many is a too simple one: tax cuts work. They appear to ignore the qualifier inherent in the Laffer curve itself: they work when rates are too high.

By: Access Your Money » Making/Money: Unlocking MoreMoney

Access Your Money » Making/Money: Unlocking MoreMoney — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:34:56 +0000

[...] John McCain and Ben Stein sMoney [...]